Behind Cave Walls
by Karategurl13
Summary: A bunch of one shots showing what the team does when they're not on missions.
1. Artemis' Revenge

Hey everybody! This is an idea I came up with while watching videos online. Hope you enjoy! Takes place in season one.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters below.

The members of the team were in the media room watching tv when they heard Artemis zeta in. As soon as he heard the computer say her name, Kid Flash shot up from the couch and sped out of the room as fast as he could. The team looked at each other confused before turning to look at Artemis. The archer was wearing a band t-shirt and skinny jeans with the black boots that Black Canary let her borrow. The thing that stood out the most was the large hat that covered her hair and face.

"Hey Artemis. Trying out a new look?" Zatanna asked, with a small smirk on her face.

"Not really." The archer answered.

"What's with the hat?" Conner asked, staring at her.

"Nothing."

Robin raised an eyebrow behind his glasses. The detective in him was screaming that she was hiding something and that Wally was involved. The Boy Wonder was determined to find out what she was hiding. As the archer walked by, Robin stood up and pulled the hat off of her head. Artemis whirled around, causing her now purple hair to fall over her shoulders like a curtain. Everyone stared wide eyed at the teen and her hair. Robin put his hand over his mouth to keep from laughing at her. Rocket was the first to recover from the shock.

"What happened to your hair?" she asked, wide eyed.

"Two words. Kid Idiot." Artemis hissed, through gritted teeth.

The Boy Wonder couldn't hold it back anymore and fell to the ground laughing, clutching his stomach. The archer glared at him intensely before putting her hat back on her head.

"Robin, that was quite rude of you. Artemis is clearly in distress." Aqualad said, looking down at him.

Robin stopped laughing and looked up at Kaldur with a slightly irritated look.

"Do you always have to be a killjoy?"

The leader sighed before helping the boy off of the floor and turning back to Artemis.

"Do you know how long that'll last?" Zatanna asked, examining her hair.

The archer shook her head slowly before leaning back and letting her head hit the back of the couch.

"Ugh! I'm going to kill him!" she yelled.

Conner walked over to the archer and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. Artemis looked up and saw the large smirk on his face.

"What?"

"You know what they say. Don't get mad, get even."

The teen let a huge smile creep across her face along with the rest of the team except for Kaldur. The Atlantean sighed shook his head.

"I do not believe this is a good idea. It seems very childish." He said, in a serious face.

Everyone in the room, including M'Gann glared at their leader intensely. Kaldur could be such a kill joy. Robin gave Zatanna a smile and slyly pointed to Kaldur. The magician grinned and winked back at him.

"You're right Kaldur. It is childish. I'm glad you're always looking out for us." Robin said, putting a hand on Kaldur's shoulder.

The teen raised an eyebrow and looked at the boy confused. Artemis' eyes widened when the words left the 13 year old's mouth. Robin of all people was saying this was childish? The archer looked at the Boy Wonder and saw him grinning. He was definitely planning something.

"Why thank you Robin. That is very mature of y-"

The Atlantean was cut off by Zatanna pulling out her wand and stepping in front of him.

"_Rudlak peels!_" the magician exclaimed.

Kaldur's eyes rolled in the back of his head and he went limp. Conner caught his leader before he hit the ground. Rocket's eyes widened and she went to Kaldur's side.

"What did you do to him?!"

"Don't worry. He's just sleeping."

"How long will he be out?"

"About 10 minutes."

"Well now that the kill joy is asleep, I need to start planning my revenge."

With that, Artemis zeta beamed out of the cave with the other members of the team behind her.

_At Walmart_

Artemis was walking down the aisles of Walmart as she was looking for the perfect thing to prank Wally with. The archer was trying her best to ignore the looks that people were giving her. Kid Flash was going to die for this. She didn't know exactly what she was going to do to him yet. All she knew was that it was going to involve something with food. She was walking through the drink aisle when she a bunch of Mio bottles stacked on a shelf. She picked up a strawberry flavored one and looked on the back of it. Warning: Do not drink right out of the bottle. Please mix with water. The liquid is extremely sour.

Artemis let a huge smirk spread over her face that would scare Joker.

"Perfect."

_The next day_

Kid Flash was completely exhausted. Not only had he just suffered through 5 hours of intense training, but he had to avoid Artemis too. He knew she was planning something, but he didn't know what. Wally could still see the archer's smirk in his mind. The speedster was ready to tear his own hair out. He walked over to the green couch in the media room and laid down on the couch. As soon as his head hit the pillow, the speedster was out like a light.

Only a few seconds later, Robin popped out of the air vent at the top of the Cave. The Boy Wonder jumped out of it and landed gracefully on the ground. He looked over at the hallway that lead to the bedrooms and gave a hand signal. Zatanna and Artemis came into the light with smirks on their faces. Artemis had a red Mio bottle in one hand and a silver video camera in the other. The two girls crept over to where Robin was and they looked down at their sleeping teammate.

"This is going to be awesome." Zee whispered, excited.

Artemis handed Robin the video camera and the boy turned it on. He then aimed at his snoring best friend and pressed the record button.

"Action." He whispered.

Artemis stood next Wally's head and opened the Mio bottle. Zee leaned over and took a whiff of it.

"Are you sure this is going to work? It smells pretty good."

"Yeah. I looked it up on youtube . This stuff is supposed to be super sour."

The archer bit her lip to keep herself from laughing and held the bottle over the teen's open mouth. She squirted some of the liquid into Wally's mouth and the speedster started gagging uncontrollably. His green eyes shot open and he fell to his knees gagging. Robin fell to the ground, cackling like crazy. Zatanna tried to suppress her laughter, but failed miserably. Artemis on the other hand was not trying to hide her laughter what so ever. She was pounding her fist on the ground, hyperventilating. Kid Flash was clutching his throat trying to get the liquid out of his throat. His lips were cherry red and his eyes were watering.

"What the heck?!" he yelled, with a scratchy voice.

His teammates continued to laugh at him as they showed him the bottle of water enhancer. Kid Flash growled and ran to the bathroom to try and stop the intense burning in his mouth. After Robin finally recovered from his laughter, he got up off the floor and pressed the stop button.

"This is so going on youtube."

Hope you enjoyed! I'm open to suggestions! P.S, Mio is extremely sour so I **wouldn't** recommend you drink it from the bottle without mixing it with water. I'm dead serious. Please review! =)


	2. To This Day

Hey everybody! This one shot is sad so I suggest you have tissues ready. Poem is in italics. This is inspired by a real video. Check it out on youtube. watch?v=ltun92DfnPY.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters below or the poem. **Poem belongs to Shane Koycza**.

Kid Flash sighed heavily as he searched the internet looking for something to do. There hadn't been much action in Central City and the Team hadn't been given a mission in over a week. So to put it simply, the young speedster was bored out of his mind. Wally sighed heavily and let his head hit the back of the computer desk. He glanced over at Robin who was sitting on the couch, doing his homework.

"Rob, I'm bored." He whined.

"Well what do you expect me to do about it?" he asked, not looking up from his assignment.

"Entertain me."

The Boy Wonder glanced up at the speedster and rolled his eyes behind his mask.

"Do I look like a puppet to you?"

"Do I have to answer that truthfully?"

Robin felt his eyebrow twitch slightly and sighed heavily. Sometimes he wondered why he and Wally were best friends.

"If you're so bored, why don't you look up a video on the internet?" the Boy Wonder suggested.

"Like what?" Wally asked.

"I don't know. Look on the youtube homepage. They always have random videos on there."

"Great idea. Glad I came up with it."

The Boy Wonder rolled his eyes again and went back to doing his homework. Meanwhile, Wally was searching the most viewed videos on youtube when he saw a video with a picture of a pork chop on it. The speedster grinned at his luck and turned to Robin again.

"Dude, I think I found a video about food."

Dick gave him a lazy thumbs up before letting his hand drop again. Now it was the speedster's turn to roll his eyes. Kid Flash then turned back to the screen and clicked on the video. _To this day _appeared on the screen and the speedster turned up the volume.

_When I was a kid  
I used to think that pork chops and karate chops  
were the same thing  
I thought they were both pork chops  
and because my grandmother thought it was cute  
and because they were my favorite  
she let me keep doing it_

Wally chuckled at the statement and leaned back in his chair.

_not really a big deal_

Kid Flash pursed his lips together before nodding his head. "Yeah, I guess it's not that big a deal."

_one day  
before I realized fat kids are not designed to climb trees  
I fell out of a tree  
and bruised the right side of my body_

The young speedster cringed and thought about the first time he had an incident with a tree. The only difference was that instead of falling out of a tree, he ran into one. Now that hurt.

_I didn't want to tell my grandmother about it  
because I was afraid I'd get in trouble  
for playing somewhere that I shouldn't have been_

Wally remembered all the times he hid injuries from Uncle Barry because he was afraid he'd make him stop being Kid Flash.

_a few days later the gym teacher noticed the bruise  
and I got sent to the principal's office  
from there I was sent to another small room  
with a really nice lady  
who asked me all kinds of questions  
about my life at home_

_I saw no reason to lie  
as far as I was concerned  
life was pretty good  
I told her "whenever I'm sad  
my grandmother gives me karate chops"_

Wally eyes widened and he leaned forward on the desktop. "Oh boy."

_this led to a full scale investigation  
and I was removed from the house for three days  
until they finally decided to ask how I got the bruises_

_news of this silly little story quickly spread through the school  
and I earned my first nickname_

_pork chop_

The speedster's jaw dropped in surprise and outrage. Pork chop? Who calls a kid pork chop and thinks it's funny?

_to this day  
I hate pork chops_

"I don't blame you." Wally said, crossing his arms and sitting back in his chair.

_I'm not the only kid  
who grew up this way  
surrounded by people who used to say  
that rhyme about sticks and stones  
as if broken bones  
hurt more than the names we got called  
and we got called them all  
so we grew up believing no one  
would ever fall in love with us  
that we'd be lonely forever  
that we'd never meet someone  
to make us feel like the sun  
was something they built for us  
in their tool shed  
so broken heart strings bled the blues  
as we tried to empty ourselves  
so we would feel nothing  
don't tell me that hurts less than a broken bone  
that an ingrown life  
is something surgeons can cut away  
that there's no way for it to metastasize_

_it does_

Kid Flash sighed heavily as he felt the stinging sensation in his eyes begin to become more intense. This video was breaking his heart and it was only two minutes in.

_she was eight years old  
our first day of grade three  
when she got called ugly  
we both got moved to the back of the class  
so we would stop get bombarded by spit balls  
but the school halls were a battleground  
where we found ourselves outnumbered day after wretched day  
we used to stay inside for recess  
because outside was worse  
outside we'd have to rehearse running away  
or learn to stay still like statues giving no clues that we were there  
in grade five they taped a sign to her desk  
that read beware of dog_

Kid Flash shook his head in disbelief and disappointment. He remembered getting teased when he was younger and even did a fair share of it himself, but it was never like this. He'd never call anybody, let alone a girl a dog.

_to this day  
despite a loving husband  
she doesn't think she's beautiful  
because of a birthmark  
that takes up a little less than half of her face  
kids used to say she looks like a wrong answer  
that someone tried to erase  
but couldn't quite get the job done  
and they'll never understand  
that she's raising two kids  
whose definition of beauty  
begins with the word mom  
because they see her heart  
before they see her skin  
that she's only ever always been amazing_

The young speedster could feel tears forming in his eyes, but he refused to let them fall.

_he  
was a broken branch  
grafted onto a different __family tree__  
adopted  
but not because his parents opted for a different destiny  
he was three when he became a mixed drink  
of one part left alone  
and two parts tragedy  
started therapy in 8th grade  
had a personality made up of tests and pills  
lived like the uphills were mountains  
and the downhills were cliffs  
four fifths suicidal  
a tidal wave of anti depressants  
and an adolescence of being called popper  
one part because of the pills  
and ninety nine parts because of the cruelty  
he tried to kill himself in grade ten  
when a kid who still had his mom and dad  
had the __audacity__ to tell him "get over it" as if depression  
is something that can be remedied  
by any of the contents found in a __first aid kit_

Wally immediately felt his breath catch in his throat and his eyes widened. The speedster soon heard soft whimpering and turned around to see Robin holding his head in his hands, with his body shaking. Kid Flash sped over to him and wrapped his arms around him. That part, that one part described what Dick went through and is still going through. Even though that wasn't exactly what happened to him, they basically went through the same thing. He could feel his best friend's tear seep into his shirt, but he didn't care.

"I'm sorry Dick. I'm so sorry. Do you want me to turn it off?" he asked sincerely.

"No, I want hear the rest of it." He said, almost in a whisper.

Kid Flash nodded and walked in his friend over to the desktop computer. He sat Robin down in the seat and watched as he wiped away his tears. The speedster felt his heart aching and he struggled not to cry. He knew Robin needed him. He had to be strong.

_to this day  
he is a stick of TNT lit from both ends  
could describe to you in detail the way the sky bends  
in the moments before it's about to fall  
and despite an army of friends  
who all call him an inspiration  
he remains a conversation piece between people  
who can't understand  
sometimes becoming drug free  
has less to do with addiction  
and more to do with sanity_

_we weren't the only kids who grew up this way  
to this day  
kids are still being called names  
the classics were  
hey stupid  
hey spaz  
seems like each school has an arsenal of names  
getting updated every year  
and if a kid breaks in a school  
and no one around chooses to hear  
do they make a sound?  
are they just the background noise  
of a soundtrack stuck on repeat  
when people say things like  
kids can be cruel?  
every school was a big top circus tent  
and the pecking order went  
from acrobats to lion tamers  
from clowns to carnies  
all of these were miles ahead of who we were  
we were freaks  
lobster claw boys and bearded ladies  
oddities  
juggling depression and loneliness playing solitaire spin the bottle  
trying to kiss the wounded parts of ourselves and heal  
but at night  
while the others slept  
we kept walking the tightrope  
it was practice  
and yeah  
some of us fell_

Robin whimpered as the words played in his mind. Ever since he was adopted, Dick has gotten nothing, but grief from his classmates. The only true friends he had at school were Barbra and Artemis. The others were just fakers. This video described how he felt every time he got pushed into a locker or tormented for being a "circus- freak" or a so called "charity case."

_but I want to tell them  
that all of this  
is just debris  
leftover when we finally decide to smash all the things we thought  
we used to be  
and if you can't see anything beautiful about yourself  
get a better mirror  
look a little closer  
stare a little longer  
because there's something inside you  
that made you keep trying  
despite everyone who told you to quit  
you built a cast around your broken heart  
and signed it yourself  
you signed it  
"they were wrong"  
because maybe you didn't belong to a group or a click  
maybe they decided to pick you last for basketball or everything  
maybe you used to bring bruises and broken teeth  
to show and tell but never told  
because how can you hold your ground  
if everyone around you wants to bury you beneath it  
you have to believe that they were wrong_

Dick bit his lip and exhaled deeply. They were wrong. All of them. They were wrong about him. He made it. Despite what all the social workers, bullies and cops told him. He made it.

_why else would we still be here?  
we grew up learning to cheer on the underdog  
because we see ourselves in them  
we stem from a root planted in the belief  
that we are not what we were called we are not abandoned cars stalled out and sitting empty on a highway  
and if in some way we are  
don't worry  
we only got out to walk and get gas  
we are graduating members from the class of  
we made it  
not the faded echoes of voices crying out  
names will never hurt me_

_of course  
they did_

_but our lives will only ever always  
continue to be  
a balancing act  
that has less to do with pain  
and more to do with beauty._

The video stopped and both Robin and Wally were in tears. Neither of them tried to wipe them away or hide them, they just stood next to each other, staring at the screen. The only sounds between the two were their sniffles. After what seemed like ages, Robin finally stood up and hugged Wally as tight as he could. The speedster then proceeded to rub soothing circles on the ebony's back. The best friends stood in complete silence, completely unaware that Black Canary had heard and seen the entire thing. Silent tears rolled down her face as her heart ached in her chest. Not remembering or caring why she came to the cave in the first place, she simply backed away from the entertainment room and left the boys alone.

**Please review! =)**


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